UltraHumps: 3 Half Ironmans

Hi Blog Followers and a Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have had a great festive season and seen the New Year through safe and well. If you over indulged to much for the festive celebrations and are searching for a New Years Resolution or a goal for 2017, make contact with Qwik Kiwi’s Coach Ray Boardman and he will help you to achieve your goals, along with his ever supportive clients who support each other either at events or on-line.

Well its 2017, where did 2016 go… For me, it means not only a new role within my employment, but a chance to now focus on the next phase of my 3+2+1=Charity. The 3 of the 3+2+1 might be complete in the sense of the 3 Half Ironman events over 3 consecutive weekends, which I completed in December (Iron Maori Half on 3 Dec 16, Taupo 70.3 on 10 Dec 16, and Rotorua Half on 17 Dec 16), but there is no time to rest up as my next focus is on the 2 of the 3+2+1, which is 2 Ironman distance events over 2 weeks, which is Challenge Wanaka on 18 Feb 17 and Ironman New Zealand in Taupo on 4 Mar 17.

So Coach Ray has been managing my training around recovery from the 3 Half Ironman events and also Taking Care of Business (TCB) around my calf. The calf appears to have come through fine and I am now running back on it full time under the careful watchful eye of Coach Ray and my Physio Richard. This weeks training has been back to Swimming, Cycling and Running. Being in the Hawkes Bay for the summer break has been great, as a change of environment is always rewarding, the only downside is the two 25 metre pools I have come across in both Napier and Hastings are only 4 lanes, so sometimes there is a bit of congestion, but a small price to pay for summer in the Bay. I find hitting all 3 disciplines early, not only gets the training completed for the day, but their is also a better chance of less road traffic or other swimmers around.

Speaking of traffic, brings me to this weeks photo’s from Ultraman Australia’s Day 2. This was the 280 km cycle which started at 0530 under the cover of darkness in Noosa. The first photo is heading out and not long into it under the watchful eye of the technical officials as the field of athletes started to spread out, the 2nd photo is in the heat of the day which kept my Support Crew (Ray Boardman, Derrick McMillan and Scott Cordwell) busy throughout, providing me electrolyte drinks and food (chicken drumsticks, sausage rolls, Tim Tam biscuits, etc were great, but sticky donuts just made a mess of my hands and handle bars much to the delight of my support crew), the last photo is near the end of the day as we come back in towards Noosa with the fabulous view of the Ocean. Photo’s courtesy of Barry Alsop of Eyes Wide Open Images, the Official Photographer for Ultraman Australia 2016.

Take care team, and all the best for 2017 as I keep you posted on my journey, regards John Humphries (Aka UltraHumps, Aka Humps)!

Ray has competed in triathlons from sprint to ironman distance (both IM Taupo and Challenge Wanaka). Consequently he is aware of the importance of balancing training with lifestyle, thus complimenting other important aspects of an athlete’s life (family, work, study commitments etc…).
• Entering your first triathlon?
• Stepping up to a longer distance?
• Looking to go faster?
• Wanting to turn previous negatives into positives?
Ray has coached athletes to achieve these and more. Training programmes are accessible online, so athletes can be located anywhere and still reap the benefits of Ray’s coaching. Contact him to discuss how he can assist you to achieve your goals.

1 week agoYesterday our tour group of 15 were dropped at the start of the section of Wall which is part of the course for the half marathon on Saturday. 3.3km later we arrived back at what will be the start & finish line area. Climbing up & down steps is a challenge as I train on the flat! It took me a while to get "warmed up". The smog was quite evident. Not all the wall is steps. Some parts were slippery. It is amazing to think how old the Wall is and how it was built. It took me 2

Training Plan of the Month – May 2019

As you follow the programme you will find yourself swimming your 1,500m faster. Now whether that is a PB or not will depend on how fast you have swum in the past, but it will definitely be faster at the end of the 4 weeks than it is now. With this programme people improve on average nearly 2 minutes, with some people improving by over 10%.

Designed for triathletes who have limited time to train but can squeeze two short 2km sessions in each week. The primary goal of this training plan is to prepare you to swim 1,500m faster than you did at the start of the programme.